Pots and....

... Pens.

Before Christmas and the New Year I decided to have a go at some pottery. I bought myself a (massive) bag of airdrying Newclay and then did nothing about it as present making took over.

This week I finally sat down to have a go at making some pen pots for work (I'm a teacher and move classrooms every other lesson but have a chaotic cardboard box of stationary, so I thought I'd solve the problem esp. since at least half the kids don't bring a pen to class!)

Materials Required;

Newclay airdrying clay - I got a 12kg bag from ebay
Some pottery tools -These were also from ebay
Newclay hardener (H1)- from ebay again
Acrylic paints-  from Wilkos
Brushes- -
Varnish- also from wilkos



Here are a few pictures of the results...

First I used the Newclay to make a pot shape. 

I made the pot from one piece by hollowing it out rather than rolling and sticking together.






Then I added a bit of decoration and
 left to dry for 48 hours.

 Once they were dry I painted them with 2 layers of Newclay hardener and left for another 24hours.

I'm not sure how well this stage worked to be honest, it didn't seem to mix all that well with the water and has since separated in the jar despite saying it will last indefinatly?!?

  I painted the pots with acrylic paints from Wilkos, I bought primary colours to mix together.

Finally, I coated the pots in 2 layers of varnish- this was just simple wood varnish also from wilkos and seems to have worked nicely.

Now they are all ready for my pens....